A Lynn loosener kicks off 2018/19 for City, with not too many lessons learned

The Walks has changed quite a bit since my playing days. In the late 1980s it was getting pretty run down as the club struggled from one financial crisis to another, which would ultimately culminate in a coup de grace from HMRC in 2009 as a result of an unpaid tax bill.

The pitch was a quagmire in winter, a desert in spring and training nights couldn’t start until some intrepid individual had been despatched into the darkness to open up the hut in the far corner that housed the floodlight switches. We even had medicine balls in the gym……

However, since its reformation in 2010 both the club and the ground itself has seen constant improvements and so it was fitting that it should be the venue for our first look at the Norwich City class of 2018/19.

Nothing much can be read into the early stages of pre-season, and City’s squad had a number of noticeable absentees with the likes of Kenny McLean, Emi Buendia and Ben Marshall held back for Tuesday’s game at Lincoln. But it was a chance to see some of the new players and look for clues about how Daniel Farke’s approach may change this year.

In the latter respect, I’m not sure that we learnt much with City dominating possession at a relaxed pace and playing lots of neat triangles without really creating chances. Credit is due to Lynn who looked a well-drilled and composed outfit with new boss Simon Clark clearly looking to build on the passing style that Ian Culverhouse developed last season.

It was good to see Sean Raggett in a City shirt and he looked very comfortable in a back-three alongside Timm Klose and Christian Zimmermann, although they weren’t tested too much in the first half. However, the interesting thing for me was the different option offered by Felix Passlack at wing back. While he is clearly still finding his feet in England after only a week, he looked solid defensively but more importantly looked a real threat going forward.

Unlike Ivo Pinto, whose forward excursions tend to be exclusively up and down the wing, the more attack-minded Passlack often looks to free his winger and then cut inside to look for a square ball and a potential shooting opportunity.

Teemu Pukki, while clearly building up fitness also offers another dimension. He’s quick, strong and showed some neat touches as well as good awareness of those around him. Interestingly, he played slightly deeper than Dennis Srbeny but got himself into good positions in the box.

The other debutant, Remi Matthews, had virtually nothing to do, and had no chance with Lynn’s goal following a marking mix up at the far post – but for me the stand out performer was Onel Hernandez, whose pace and trickery caused Lynn all sorts of problems as he tormented both fullbacks and got decent crosses in.

Anyone expecting Moritz Leitner to adopt the James Maddison role will be disappointed as the German clearly feels more comfortable dropping deep to pick up the ball from his defenders and initiate passing moves. I suspect that Kenny McLean may well turn out to be the midfielder who most closely resembles Maddison’s style.

The game suddenly went up a notch on the hour when Farke fielded an entire team of youth and under-23 players supplemented by Yanic Wildschut, and the increased directness and pace of City’s approach started to tear holes in Lynn’s previously comfortable defence.

Adam Idah showed his potential both as a provider in setting up the equaliser for Devonte Aransibia and then as a finished in scoring the winner himself after good work from Wildschut, but Adam Phillips and Max Aarons also stood out. So too did Anthony Spyrou until he limped off with a slight sprain.

Overall Farke will be pleased to get a pipe opener out of the way without any significant injuries, and while City’s senior players understandably looked a little heavy legged after ten days or so of double sessions aimed at building stamina, there were some promising signs.

Nevertheless, as the pre-season programme continues there will be an expectation that more end product will be on display and we will all be waiting expectantly for the arrival or another striker.

No-one should read too much, either positive or negative, into last night’s game, although I’m sure that there will be people wailing on the Facebook forums about how a failure to score ten against a very good non-league team is conclusive proof that relegation beckons. We will learn much more as pre-season continues and we see more of the squad in action.

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Comments

I think city will need to use more of the U23 than first thought but surprised that no mention of Oliveria, Martin being with the team that travelled to Kings Lynn so either they weren’t considered fit enought or are not in the plans this season unless things change drastically.

With all the rumours of Wildshut going back to Wigan either on loan or permanently depending what local rag you read I was surprised he got time on the pitch unless it is to prove to possible interested clubs ge is fit and raring to go.

I see in the list of pre season games there is no spot for the usual Cambridge United game would that be due to the kicking they handed out to players last season????

The big question is will he be or not be a city player at the start of the season the one and only Jordan Rhodes???????

You’re right about Cambridge. Think Nelson will be gone but the Rhodes situation seems to be down to Wednesday’s terms. Suspect if it doesn’t happen in the next few days they’ll move on. Several players were absent last night so I wouldn’t read too much into who was and who wasn’t included to be honest.

Thanks for the insight.I hear Jarvis is injured again but did you hear how fit Thomson is?Was a bright prospect before his terrible injury.Seems to me the youngsters tryed a bit harder than the others:)

Kings Lynn are a much stronger team than our usual pre-season non-league opponents so it is hard to compare even with last season’s 5-1 at Lowestoft. There are players missing from the line up and others included who might move on before Aug 9th. A Facebook post the other day included a possible starting line up for the new season and it looked reasonably strong with a few decent players still on the bench. It would be interesting to know what other fans are expecting for this coming season, we have a lot of new players who will be adjusting to a new level and/or a new country so I expect a transitional season. We don’t know the financial position of the club despite the fact that Mr Stone has been as open as he can be and has given a good outline of the complexities around accounting for player trading. With the money from Cup runs we have been given an indication that we made a small profit last season but the coming year will be the test and it is not until 2020 when we will really have an indication of the financial situation at the club (unless things are a lot lot worse than we think)

I think the size and speed of the early transactions has largely steadied the ship financially and it’s important to realise that after this year true self funding becomes viable because there will be no more big cuts in income to budget for (unless we were relegated), so we’re now at a point where we can start to build again. Steve Stone and Stuart Webber are very astute so I trust their judgement.

Watching MOTD again beause of course I am. The first goal made by an overlapping Byram making space for an advancing Tettey, that's right Tettey to take the ball wide, cross to win the corner. Hard to pick an MoM but Tettey was immense after so little football #ncfc

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